Shouting ‘9/11’ in a Crowded Internet ………

When National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden first revealed himself in a video interview five months ago as the source of leaked documents exposing the NSA’s collection of phone and data records of U.S. citizens, he noted: “The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change.”

Despite the rapid pace of the NSA revelations, the subsequent claims and counterclaims of U.S. officials (and the fact that nobody possesses the policy, technical, operational, and legal background required to accurately characterize these stories and place them within a proper historical and global context), there’s still one thing that can no longer be denied: The Snowden-supplied documents have instigated a global conversation about U.S. surveillance that will undoubtedly result in changes to the scope and conduct of certain NSA programs. And in fact, it’s happening already.

Within the last week alone we have learned that the Obama administration authorized an internal review that brought to light the existence of a program used to spy on numerous world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (This investigation complements an independent review of U.S. surveillance efforts conducted by former officials and experts, which will present its findings by year’s end.) Even the staunch defender of the NSA, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, announced: “the committee will initiate a major review into all intelligence collection programs.” Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that U.S. electronic surveillance was “on an automatic pilot because the technology is there,” and “in some cases, it has reached too far inappropriately.” And for the first time since the Snowden leaks, White House spokesperson Jay Carney acknowledged the agency’s overreach saying, “We recognize that there need to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence.”

Yet, Snowden’s most meaningful and enduring impact will not be prompting U.S. electronic surveillance policy reform. Rather, what these five post-Snowden months have demonstrated is that inflating terrorist threats to justify expansive and invasive executive branch powers no longer resonates with the general public or most policymakers. That default appeal to 9/11 and vague warnings of terrorism that Bush and Obama administration officials relied upon to shape opinions and silence critics is no longer sufficient or acceptable.

Sill, intelligence officials continue to defend the NSA as just another federal agency dedicated solely to protecting American citizens from terrorism. In his opening testimony before the House Permanent Intelligence Committee last week, NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander re-used this same old trope:

“First, how did we get here? How did we end up here? 9/11 — 2,996 people were killed in 9/11. We all distinctly remember that. What I remember the most was those firemen running up the stairs to save people, to there themselves lose their lives. We had this great picture that was created afterward of a fireman handing a flag off to the military, and I’d say the intelligence community, and the military and the intelligence community said: ‘We’ve got it from here.'”

Sorry, Keith: the NSA was not created on Sept. 12, 2001, but came into existence on Nov. 4, 1952. Its purpose was — and, in theory, still is — to collect and process communications intelligence in order to identify threats and opportunities for a range of diplomatic, military, and economic activities. (Preceded by the Armed Forces Security Agency, established in 1949, the Army’s Signal Intelligence Service (1930), and the Army’s Cipher Bureau (1917), the NSA was established with NSC Intelligence Directive No. 9 and authorized to be responsible for all national communications intelligence gathering.)It has been resourced and supported through its success and failuresby senior decision-makers ever since for the unique information advantages that only it can provide.But, employing a selective narrative of the tragedy of 9/11 for political advantage, and rationalizing the NSA’s activities by directly linking them to Ground Zero should be condemned.

Likewise, General Alexander claimed that terrorist fatalities have never been higher:

“If you look at the trends in the [counterterrorism] arena, in 2012, it was the highest globally that it’s been ever. Over 15,000 people killed…. And yet, there has not been a mass casualty here in the U.S. since 2001.”

Here again, he’s resorting to playing fast and loose with facts. According to the State Department’s annual counterterrorism data — which, as of 2012, is compiled by the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism — global terror deaths have generally decreased from a high of 22,719 in 2007, to 11,098 in 2012. To be fair, there are methodological problems with categorizing terror deaths, and Alexander might have used an alternative database. Nevertheless, there were no international terrorism mass casualty events in the United States before or after 2001. And overemphasizing the NSA’s role in either causing 9/11, or preventing subsequent 9/11s, misses the inadequate government-wide response to al Qaeda that the 9/11 Commission found, and diminishes the important counterterror activities of non-NSA agencies. Moreover, this logic implies both that 9/11 necessitated the NSA’s expanded authorities, and that the absence of additional mass casualty attacks requires that all existing authorities must remain intact.

Consider also a June 24 NSA document, obtained by Al Jazeera America via a Freedom of Information Act request, titled: “Media Leaks Master TPs (talking points).” The very first one, under “sound bites that resonate,” reads “I much prefer to be here today explaining these programs, than explaining another 9/11 event that we were not able to prevent.” This 25-page document of behind-the-scenes media guidance for “Congress, the media and anyone else within the Obama administration surrounding the leak of information related to NSA surveillance activities,” only confirmed what Americans have been hearing all along from senior officials: rationalize NSA, CIA, DOD, DHS, or FBI conduct by repeating 9/11.

One can hardly blame General Alexander and NSA public affairs officers from promoting counterterrorism — and consciously omitting other missions — to justify and protect their authorities, or shield dedicated staffers from condemnation and scrutiny. Yet Americans increasingly recognize that our political discourse, protection of First Amendment rights, respect for civil liberties, and conduct of foreign policy are overwhelmingly determined by our perceptions of terrorism. Government officials who seek maximum authority with minimum transparency shape those perceptions by constantly re-reminding Americans about 9/11 and inflating terrorist threats.

Yes, U.S. officials have to manage theirobligation to the public and Congress to describe their agency’s activities as completely and accurately as possible, without revealing classified sources and methods. But General Alexander’s way of relaying the NSA’s activities with selective language that plays upon America’s resonant fears of international terrorism is a failing strategy. As David Rohde wrote last week, “The United States’ obsession with al Qaeda is doing more damage to the nation than the terrorist group itself.” Nicholas Kristof further noted that: “For a dozen years, security has been an obsession, rarely constrained by a weighing of trade-offs, and to what result? We have sought every tactical advantage, and this sometimes leads — as in eavesdropping of foreign allies — to strategic losses.”

There’s yet another problem with this approach, one that journalists have (selectively) reported based on documents that show that what the NSA says it does simply not match up with what it actually does. This chasm between justification and practice leaves the agency open to charges of hypocrisy or deceit. As Scott Shane’s excellent survey of NSA activities summarizes: “Obama and top intelligence officials have defended the agency’s role in preventing terrorist attacks. But as the documents make clear, the focus on counterterrorism is a misleadingly narrow sales pitch for an agency with an almost unlimited agenda.” As the “mission” section of the NSA’s own website declares:

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.”

What recent reporting has proven is that the NSA is not, in fact, a rogue agency, but rather one that is doing exactly what its galactically broad and all-encompassing mission entails. The violation is in misleading the nation — indeed the world — as to what that mission is, shrinking it down to just one line of action. It is a pretense that the Obama administration and intelligence community officials should cease.

Snowden has brought forth a national debate about electronic surveillance that is not only worthwhile but long overdue. One hopes that it is broadened to protect U.S. citizens from the vastly more intrusive and comprehensive private sector surveillance and tracking as U.S. surveillance programs are investigated further. Snowden will likely play an essential role in changing how people think about state surveillance and personal privacy. Tolerating U.S. officials’ mischaracterization of the world as one of innumerable terror threats, and then misrepresent their agencies as responding solely to such inflated threats, is far more damaging than the activities of any one agency, including the NSA. But beyond that, officials are learning the hard way that simply shouting “terrorism” in a crowded policy debate is no longer a convincing call to action.

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Revolution ( in the US a constitutional right )

The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that when a long train of abuses by those in power evidence a design to reduce the rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the peoples right, in fact their duty to engage in a revolution.

and ….. JFK in his own words !

In a speech to the Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961, President Kennedy said:
“No president should fear public scrutiny of his program, for from that scrutiny comes understanding, and from that understanding comes support or opposition; and both are necessary. . . . Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed, and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian law makers once decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment.”

Abraham Lincoln said, just before his assassination:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
Hmmmm.

. . . → Read More: “Like the plot of a summer horror flick”: All along Canada’s Pacific coast, mussels are dying… Bodies are swollen by cancerous tumors — Unprecedented mutations allowing cancer to spread from one species to another like a virus — Scientists: “It’s beyond surprising” (VIDEO)

. . . → Read More: Spike in number of US sailors dying after Fukushima radiation exposure — Now over 400 veterans suffering serious illnesses — Former Japan Prime Minister breaks down crying, “This can’t be ignored any longer… The number of sick people is increasing and their symptoms are worsening” (VIDEOS)

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History speaks of the emergence of many great empires. Some of them lasted for centuries and some of them for less than that. The durations of these empires related to many factors, but one of the most important factors was the relation between the people and rulers of these empires. In the Arab region, especially since the beginning of the Islamic era, big […]

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var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068553'; Click here for reuse options! There are no rules anymore, it seems. Donald Trump isn’t letting his job as president force him to stop taking checks from his old job as executive producer of the reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice.” Despite reportedly being so unprepared for the presi […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068547'; Click here for reuse options! "Make America gasp again!" Trump is already making good on his promise to return America to an earlier time, a time that includes a great deal more air pollution, Paul Krugman writes in Friday's column. He may not be able to bring all those […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068561'; Click here for reuse options! Meaning the espionage Trump invited and otherwise. President Obama has requested that intelligence agencies conduct a review of cyberattacks launched by Russia-backed state actors that may have had an impact on the presidential election and thus infringed […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068541'; Click here for reuse options! Spencer divulged the media's disregard for the black female rocket scientists behind the Apollo moon landing. Octavia Spencer is an Academy award-winning actress with her own day in her home state of Alabama. Her latest film, "Hidden Figures, […]

var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1068508'; Click here for reuse options! How exactly do white nationalists propose to create an all-white homeland in America without violence? So now we know: White nationalists have been working more on their wardrobes than on tightening up the rhetoric and logic they use to defend and present […]

Your so-called opposition coalition, renamed "Army of Aleppo", is a terrorist surrogate of US/Western powers whose goal is to overthrow the Syrian state and turn Syria into a US/Western vassal state, or colony. And your so-called "White Helmets" is not a humanitarian organization but a terrorist propaganda tool that pretends to be a human […]

Canadians are the ones who should be crying, look at the ridiculous figure that got elected as prime minister, Canadians,not the pampered effete elites like our prime minister will have to support ,with ever steeper taxes, muslims unable or unwilling to integrate, will have to put up with raped girls and constant threat of urban violence just so pompous prig […]

I'm reduced to tears thinking about what taking care of them for the rest of their lives is going to cost Canadians! They were all safe and living in apartments in Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East and Justinhood had to, at great expense to the Canadian taxpayer, gather them up and move them here. He should have just contributed to their support f […]

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Jim W. Dean - The outrageous lies routinely thrown out at the UN by Ms. Power is a national embarrassment, but she is not to be blamed alone as she is following State Department policy which is following that of the President.

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The Arabic-language Al-Hadath news website quoted the sources as saying that some specific groups that have trained medics have kidnapped the children, mutilated their body organs and then left their corpses in remote areas or buried them.

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Minnesota State Representative Greg Davids is calling for embattled MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, the "architect" of Obamacare, to return all $329,000 he was paid by the state of Minnesota as a subcontractor on a 2011 contract to analyze the state's plan to develop its Obamacare health care exchange, MNSure. On November 21, Davids s […]

While some believe today's actions toward Cuba are within the scope of Barack Obama's role as chief executive, there are others who maintain it's not so clear. Given considerable opposition to his move to significantly loosen restrictions as regards Cuba, he may even end up facing a legal challenge. That would be in line with current challenge […]

Fox News Analyst and columnist for The Hill, Juan Williams, argued that the deal the Obama administration cut with the government of Cuba was "a pig in a poke" and that "there is nothing there" on Wednesday's "Special Report" on the Fox News Channel. "The United States got sold a pig in a poke, there is nothing there […]

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Wednesday, People magazine published an interview titled "The Obamas: How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences," in which Michelle Obama claimed it was due to racism that a woman at Target asked her for help to get detergent from a high shelf. "I tell this story, I mean, even as the first lady, during that wonderfully publicized trip I too […]

Despite, or perhaps because of Barack Obama being in the White House - many feel he's done more harm than good to race relations in America - an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll "showed the most pessimistic assessment of racial issues in almost two decades." A majority of Americans, 57% now say they are bad. In the wake of protests over the […]

Senator and prospective 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul addressed several Goldman Sachs executives during "a closed-door audience at the firm's 200 West offices as part of an internal company speaker series known as Talks@GS." Reportedly, "Paul spoke about foreign policy, the economic recovery, and race relations, ... and h […]

[Dalsan Radio] As the 2016 Somalia Parliamentary election results streamed in from across the regions new faces and old faces in the politics of the horn of Africa country emerged as winners in a poll that has turned out to have its fair share of surprises

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[Radio Dabanga] River Nile -An academic hospital in northern Sudan has dismissed eighteen lab technicians who participated in a strike staged against the deteriorating working environment. Ten others were stopped from entering the hospital.

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Buenos Aires: A tale of two cities December 2, 2016

by Agustina Larrea Housing, unemployment, healthcare, pollution, infant mortality rates, even life expectancy — there’s a world of difference between the thriving north and forgotten south of Buenos Aires “When the City government neglects our neighbourhood it has concrete consequences: our kids are dying. Literally,” says Natalia Quinto, activist and member […]

by Sorrel Moseley-Williams While model Germán Fontanini essentially lives out of a suitcase, moving between the likes of India and South Africa for jobs, he spends considerable time living in the world’s most populated country. Currently on location in Cape Town, Hangzhou, China, is his base.

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In the early morning hours of Sunday September 18, the Israeli police began an arbitrary arrest campaign targeting Palestinian activists from the National Democratic Assembly (NDA). The arrests targeted the Head of the political party, Mr Awad Abdelfattah, among other dozens of leaders and members, part of them members of the local authority councils. The ar […]

By Greta Berlin, Co-Founder, Free Gaza movement We were so late leaving Cyprus for Gaza. The 30+ passengers waiting in the hot, dusty confines of the University in Nicosia were fed up and beginning to wonder if two boats ever existed. Every day, I went into the morning meeting and said, “Not today, they are in a storm.” Or, “Not today, they have had problems […]

The Debra Evenson Venceremos International Award is presented on an annual basis as a national Guild award to honor outstanding international legal work, legal solidarity, international advocacy, and justice beyond borders, in the tradition of Debra Evenson. Former Guild President Debra Evenson was a leading expert on Cuba’s legal system, a law professor and […]

On Aug. 18, 2014, a crowd gathered outside the downtown St. Louis office of Jay Nixon, the governor of Missouri. The governor, responding to protests in Ferguson over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, had just activated the National Guard, and the demonstrators outside his office were outraged at what they saw as heavy-ha […]

MEMO | Sept 2, 2014 Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar said on Monday that the United States is a partner to the Israeli occupation and its crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.Speaking to the Palestinian Al-Quds television, he said: “We mean the US administration, not the American people, who took to the streets in […]

MEMO | Tuesday, 02 September 2014 11:46 IMAGES The explosives engineering division in the Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip yesterday destroyed around five tonnes of unexploded bombs that were launched by the Israeli army on the sector during their latest assault. Imad Al-Amasi, director of the division, told the Anadolu news agency: “Today, […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 05:05 by IMEMC News & Agencies Israeli forces kidnapped six Palestinians and physically assaulted two teenagers in West Bank districts, on Monday, according to reports by security sources. Also on Monday, seven residential and agricultural structures in the southern Hebron Governorate were demolished. PCHR archive photo Israe […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 10:03 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News Palestinian medical sources report that a man and a child have died of serious injuries suffered, in different strikes, during Israel’s extensive bombardment and aggression on the Gaza Strip. Image – Palestinian Ministry Of Health The sources said resident Bassem ‘Ajjour died, on […]

Tuesday September 02, 2014 10:54 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, ‘Anza village, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, broke into and ransacked several homes, and kidnapped 17 Palestinians. Soldiers also invaded a flea market near Nablus, and closed it. File […]

by Richard Silverstein on September 1, 2014 | Tikun Olam | תיקון עולם IDF Col. Ofer Winter’s approach to Rafah: apres moi, le deluge. The Israeli attorney general and military prosecutor have begun investigations of numerous incidents during Operation Protective Edge which may reach to the level of war crimes : While fighting still raged, […]

By Stephen Lendman | Global Research, September 01, 2014 On August 31, Israel’s Civil Administration announced confiscation of around 1,000 acres of privately owned Palestinian land. It lawlessly declared it State Land. It’s to establish a Gva’ot settlement. It’s located south of Bethlehem. It’s in the Southern West Bank. Peace Now calls itself “the leading […]

However dubious big Republican supporters of Israel felt about Donald Trump, in the last weeks of the election campaign many of them gave a lot of money to the Republican Party; and Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave $10 million to a pro-Trump PAC

This January, after several years of often-heated discussion and review, the Modern Language Association’s representative body will consider a resolution to endorse the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. The relative absence of Palestinian testimony from debates at scholarly associations prompted a number of MLA members to visit […]

At Texas A&M, alt-right leader Richard Spencer praises Israel for its intrinsically racist and exclusionist policies, and Hillel Rabbi Matt Rosenberg has no answer. No Zionist can have one, and no wonder Israel's defenders are queasy these days.

After a fire erupted in the illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish, dozens of Palestinians have been detained in the occupied West Bank village of Deir Nidham. And it has been blockaded by the Israeli army, “turning the lives of 1,600 into a prison,” locals told Ma‘an.

Palestinians have lived in the refugee camps around Lebanon since the Nakba in 1948 when they were forcibly ejected from their homeland by Israel. Most of these Palestinians have never set foot in Palestine and are prevented from doing so by Israel. Only the oldest have any memory of their homeland. Celia Peterson interviewed Palestinians of various ages in […]

Occupation-Free Portland, a coalition of faith, social justice and peace organizations, in collaboration with Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, have launched an ad campaign on TriMet buses serving the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area that read, “Portland: Divest from Caterpillar. Caterpillar Violates Human Rights from Standing Rock to Palestine.” The ad […]

Chemi Shalev and Jeremy Ben-Ami say that if Keith Ellison is defeated for Democratic Party chair, there will be a backlash against the organized Jewish community that has opposed a rising star; and that is bad for Jews. Ellison is shaking up the discussion of US policy.

Jewish national self-determination (also known as Zionism) is an unshakable right and today an indivisible part of Jewish identity. You question it at your peril. Despite all that, Robert Cohen is chucking it in. You can have it back he says. He doesn't need it.

Last night the Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz, CA voted to refrain from buying Hewlett-Packard (HP) products until HP companies cease to profit from Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights. The congregation made the move as part of the HP-Free Churches campaign initiated by the Friends of Sabeel North America.

The Venice Commission, an advisory body at the human rights watchdog Council of Europe, says Turkey is abusing state of emergency laws in its wider efforts to purge so-called state saboteurs after the failed mid-July coup. It said the government is casting too wide a net over people linked to the Fethullah Gulen movement, which Ankara blames for the coup att […]

Dutch anti-EU, anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders will hear Friday whether he has broken the law by calling for "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands, but has already said in a statement he would not change his behaviour. "The verdict, whether acquittal or conviction, will not change anything de facto," Wilders said according to the Telegraaf new […]

The South Korean parliament has voted to impeach its scandal-hit president amid mass protests in Seoul. Park Geun-Hye faces being the first democratically-elected leader of the country to be kicked out of office following the vote. The impeachment motion had accused Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect people’s liv […]

Obama traveled to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida this week to address the military for the last time. Obama defended his policies that resulted in the rise of the Islamic State. The lame-duck president also defended Islam and blamed Americans for feeding the terrorist narrative. Good grief. Breitbart reported: “Obama said, ‘We are […]

A sobering Ministry of Defense (MoD) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putin’s ordering to full combat alert status yesterday of the feared S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems in the Western Military District along the Federations entire border with NATO aligned nations was in direct response to the “Christmas Threat” issued […]

A 41-year-old man had been detained on suspicion of murder, after he is believed to have set fire to his wife on a street in the northern town of Kiel on Wednesday. “We think it’s clear in this case that malevolence and brutality, both requisites for a murder charge, exist,” said state prosecutor Axel Bieler […]

It’s official – The ‘TRUMP STOCK MARKET RALLY’ continues to shatter the record books. As a matter of fact, what we have seen since President-Elect Donald Trump won the Presidential election on November 8th, has never occurred before. Out of 21 days since the election, the Dow has reached all time closing highs 13 of […]

Motorcyclist catches an escaped yellow parakeet with one hand /u/maestro89

Two Years /u/GreyRobe

You are clever my friend....very clever..... /u/4kaee

Last nights sunset in Zion NP, Utah [OC] 1200x797 /u/cozmo2312

Japan has launched a cargo ship which will use a half mile- (700m)-long tether to remove some of the vast amount of debris from Earth's orbit. /u/NinjaDiscoJesus

The Last Guardian (Dunkey vid) /u/CatsLikeToMeow

I am the harbinger of the companions, arch-mage, the listener of the dark brotherhood, thane of all 9 holds, master of the thieves guild, nightingale, werewolf, dragonborn... and this is still my proudest moment. (Credit u/lithium2017) /u/Clever_BigMack

It's Uber for haircuts! It's Uber for ice cream! The rash of startups claiming to mimic Uber but for other goods and service don't really get what Uber is. The post The 'Uber for X' Fad Will Pass Because Only Uber Is Uber appeared first on WIRED.

Without external cameras or beacons, Occipital's environment-mapping headset adds advanced mixed-reality capabilities to the iPhone 6, 6S, and 7. The post The Bridge Headset Powers Up iPhone VR With Positional Tracking appeared first on WIRED.

Dyson's Cu-Beam Duo looks like a satellite, runs for decades, and gives you total control of your office lighting. The post Dyson's Cu-Beam Duo Is a Radically New Office Lamp—Seriously appeared first on WIRED.

Curated this year by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, the 15th Istanbul Biennial, titled ‘A good neighbor,’ will deal with notions of neighborhood and home while exploring how living modes have changed. The biennial will take place between Sept 16 and Nov 12, 2017

Turkish actress Tuba Büyüküstün, who has many fans around the world thanks to her appearance in various TV series, especially in the Middle East, drew great interest at the recent 13th Dubai International Film Festival.

Fifty-one academics out of 87 who were issued detention warrants have been detained by police at Istanbul University over suspected links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating the July 15 failed coup attempt, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Excavation work in a house in the southern province of Mersin’s Tarsus district has drawn much curiosity after continuing for 20 days under the direction of the special forces and the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), Doğan News Agency has reported.

Turkey has criticized a decision by a Greek appeals court to reject an extradition request for five Turkish soldiers who fled to the country after the failed coup of July 15, repeating its call for the extradition of a total of eight Turkish military personnel

The Turkish government has expressed concern over Israel’s plans to establish a new settlement project on occupied Palestinian territories, in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry late on Dec. 8.